The
world of work will continue to evolve in 2019, and corporations must find ways
to adapt their office real estate.

That is the conclusion of a new
piece of research by flexible workplace specialist Abintra.

Published
in a new report, the study highlights how corporations are struggling to manage
office space efficiently as
the trend towards agile and flexible working gathers momentum.

The
publication explores methods for responding through office space utilisation
techniques, including the latest tech options.

Compiled
by Abintra’s US office, Emerging Trends in Occupancy Management asks if an emerging class of
technology services could be the solution to the challenges faced by real
estate professionals in 2019.

It sets out the pros and cons of
different approaches to managing office space usage, including people counting and tracking,
either manually or via WiFi, swipe cards and PIR sensor systems.

Previous research by Abintra has
revealed that corporations waste as much as 30 per cent of office space and two
thirds of meeting room space because of under-utilisation. The value of that
prime real estate in the UK alone tops £10 billion.

The report shows that companies are learning to get by with fewer people
and need less space per worker as they allow more employees to work flexible
hours, or work at home.

It
quotes one US real estate professional as saying: “There is this constant
trend to get more productivity and efficiency out of office space.”

But while real estate managers would like to rationalise the amount of
space being used, or to make better use of it, the report points out that doing
so is increasingly complex. Density can vary significantly due to various
factors such as the nature of work, building codes and even the use of space as a
reward for more senior personnel.

Calculating how much space is actually required depends on working out
how space is currently used and how it could be adapted. Unfortunately, as the
report shows, many of the techniques used for measuring usage don’t deliver
reliable information. It points out the flaws in many traditional measurement
tools and in many of the technological solutions on the market.

Abintra’s own system relies on passive infrared sensors mounted to the underside
of work surfaces to detect presence linked to powerful software. It is
non-invasive compared with systems that rely on individual workers’ phones or
computers to track them. The resulting data is displayed on a live floor plan,
available on an app, web browser or a display in the office entrance area so
that employees can see where there are available desks within a building and
choose where to work.

The report draws on Abintra’s
experience in the field as well as publicly-available information from Avison
Young, CBRE, Urban Land Institute, Balfour Management Consultants, Harvard
Business Review, Deloitte and MarketWatch.

https://abintra-consulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Boston-skyline-crop-panorama.png10672495Duncan Hopwoodhttps://abintra-consulting.com//wp-content/uploads/2018/01/logo.pngDuncan Hopwood2019-01-10 16:06:082019-01-10 16:06:10﻿Corporations must harness prop tech to adapt to new ways of work – special report